Meeting
by EoEDaD
Summary: The vampire twins need Yuuko's help. Watanuki discovers that he is also going to assist them.


Written because I wanted to experiment with a series of drabbles, so it's 100 words per section. Mild Dou/Wata, which is entirely angelofplottwist's fault. _Entirely._

* * *

The vampires have already arrived when Watanuki walks into Yuuko's shop. "This is Kamui-kun," the Dimensional Witch (not Yuuko-san, not now) tells him, "and this is Subaru-kun." Kamui-san is unconscious, lying motionless on a futon that Watanuki knows has never existed in the shop. Bandages cover his hand, his neck. His right eye.Subaru-san is standing in the corner of the room, concern and a haunting sorrow lurking in his expression. They both wear elaborate black outfits that had probably been elegant before they were ripped to pieces.

Watanuki shivers as he tastes the smoke that rolls off of them.

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"Subaru-san will be staying with you. My shop cannot… contain two," the Witch informs him.

Watanuki goes speechless with surprise, and then with rage.

Suddenly the Witch becomes Yuuko-san, and over his indignant stammering she giggles, "Have a nice sleepover, and don't stay up too late gossiping!"

"YOU — !"

Watanuki suddenly remembers that his proposed guest is still in the room, and he turns to face him, all apologies and explanations that it was nothing personal, just that Yuuko-san had no concept of politeness or restraint or _anything._

Subaru-san smiles as if he has forgotten how, and Watanuki stops arguing.

--------------

There are certain logistics involved in hosting an unexpected guest, and Watanuki has already worked himself into a tizzy over most of them on the walk back to his apartment when Subaru-san says, "You don't need to worry about feeding me, or sleeping arrangements."

Watanuki blinks.

"I've gotten used to sleeping on the floor. Travel can be very… interesting."

There are species of worm that Watanuki would sooner eat than let a guest sleep on the floor. He immediately resumes planning.

Subaru-san walks beside him in silence, and then tilts his head slightly.

"Your eyes — they remind me of something."

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When Watanuki describes his new, compulsory roommate to Doumeki and Himawari-chan, Doumeki's eyes go flat and hard while Himawari-chan looks worried.

"Ah, Watanuki-kun, are you sure that it's safe…"

"Oh — yeah, he's — I guess…" He trails off. "I trust him." Then his natural reflexes kick in, and he blushes bright red. "But it's very kind of you to be concerned for me!"

"Idiot."

Watanuki glares and adds pointedly, "Unlike _some people,_ who only care about others when food is involved."

He is disgusted with himself when he realizes that he is actually mildly concerned by Doumeki's lack of a retort.

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Watanuki almost shrieks when he collides with Doumeki outside the school gates.

"Are you such a cretin that you can't even watch where you're going? What happened to archery?"

"Sleep over at my house."

"No, I will not! What the — let go of me!"

One of his wildly flailing fists connects with Doumeki's nose, and Doumeki releases him. "You're not staying with him," he says flatly.

Watanuki glowers and bites out, "Yes, I am. What, do you want me to just show him where everything is and then leave?" He pauses. "Don't answer that."

Doumeki frowns, a rarity. "Why?"

"Because."

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When he gets home, Subaru-san is methodically shredding a piece of paper over the sink.

Watanuki stares at him, letting his schoolbag fall to the ground unceremoniously. "Uh, Subaru-san?"

The vampire looks at him with blank, empty eyes. "He hurt my brother. My twin." He shudders. "He would have killed him. I hate him. That — that makes _sense,_ doesn't it?"

Watanuki has developed a working relationship with confusion: it afflicts him (generally in the form of Yuuko-san), he does his best to work around it, and often gets the right answer purely by chance.

"It should. But most things don't."

--------------

Watanuki insists on taking the couch. Subaru-san argues a little, but yields when he sees that Watanuki would really be happier this way.

The clock reads 1:30 when Subaru-san starts screaming.

Watanuki runs into the next room and then stops.

Subaru-san has somehow twisted himself up and out of the bed — all the way out — and six inches of razor-sharp nail are embedded in the wall over his head. His back is arched over backwards, and he is hanging on the wall. His eyes, upside-down, are filled with tears and blindingly golden.

Watanuki meets them and suddenly wants to weep.

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Yuuko-san gives Watanuki the next few days off, assuring him that "looking after" Subaru-san would make up at least twice as much debt as tiptoeing around trying not to wake Kamui-san would. He gives her the benefit of the doubt and shows Subaru-san around the parks near his neighborhood.

Doumeki shows up halfway through the tour, and while Watanuki is busy yelling at him, Subaru-san wanders off.

When Watanuki catches up to him, he is staring at the cherry trees. It's the end of winter, and their branches are bare.

Subaru-san looks puzzled. "Shouldn't one of these be in bloom?"

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They walk home in uncomfortable silence.

After the first two blocks, Subaru-san says quietly, "He used to live here, or near here. Seishiro-san. I can feel it."

Watanuki flinches a bit but keeps going. "Subaru-san, I… I doubt it. Or, at least…" He tries to explain what Yuuko-san had said once, about souls and dimensions, bodies and lives and how they were different and the same.

Subaru-san listens, and then asks hesitantly, "Yes, she mentioned that, but… does it really matter, then? Isn't the heart more important than just… words? Appearances?"

Doumeki puts his head down and doesn't stop walking.

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The spirit comes out of nowhere, and Watanuki's eyes water as dark fog begins to invade his nostrils.

So he misses a few seconds.

_Something_ happens, and when he can see again Subaru-san's fingers have extended into long, wicked talons. Little scraps of spirit-flesh hang off of them, melting. Doumeki doesn't seem to have gotten any further than getting his hand on his bow, and he looks wary.

"But — spirit! Not — it's different — thingy!" Watanuki protests after he pieces together what must have happened.

"Not to me," Subaru-san replies simply.

Doumeki's eyes narrow, and his hand stays on his bow.

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It's the fourteenth night, and the fourteenth nightmare.

The screams wake Watanuki every night, and every night he goes in to see what is wrong. It would be horribly rude to wear earplugs, of course, or to ignore a guest's distress, but more than that…

He just couldn't.

He understands, from the choked whispers, a little of what the dreams are like: the hunter, Subaru-san's sister (imagined, obviously), the hunter's hand through her heart, Subaru-san's hand through the hunter's heart. He winces at the fragments, but his attention is on Subaru-san's hands.

Some symbol with five points, and —

A butterfly.

--------------

Watanuki broaches the subject one night, cautiously.

Subaru-san blinks at him, and says thoughtfully, "You know, I really don't know."

Watanuki makes a strangled sort of sound in the back of his throat. "You — you didn't ask the price? Of Kamui-san's healing? She didn't _tell_ you?" A horrible, _horrible_ suspicion is drifting through his mind.

Subaru-san shakes his head. "She just asked what I would give, and I said anything."

"ACK."

"We're twins, and… he's who he is. Of course I said anything."

Watanuki stares at him with dawning comprehension and resolves to kill Yuuko-san at the first available opportunity.

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"Now, Watanuki, I can't answer that."

Watanuki glares at her and silently holds up a bottle of sake.

Yuuko-san takes in both his threat and wordlessness and sighs. Her eyes take on the Witch's distance. "I cannot tell you what price Subaru-san paid for his wish. But he needed to regain his sibling-mirror, his twin. Therefore, the price was…"

"But he only has one twin!…" Watanuki blinks. "In _this_ world. Or his world, whatever. But… in others…" He remembers dreams. Sister. Hunter. "Yuuko-san… can you pay with something you never had?"

"No. But with peace of mind? Budding love? Certainly."

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Kamui-san improves as Subaru-san worsens, and on the sixteenth nightmare Watanuki's door is violently broken open.

They're entwined by the time he gets to the next room, Kamui-san restraining Subaru-san's limbs as Subaru-san twists. Subaru-san's eyes open, and he shudders and clings to Kamui-san.

Maybe it's a touching scene of brotherly love. Maybe it's something more. All Watanuki can see is the way that they don't _fit,_ the empty space where something wants to make Kamui-san taller and more muscular. There's an empty space there, and as Subaru-san looks over Kamui-san's head at Watanuki, Watanuki realizes where it comes from.

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"Thank you for your hospitality," Subaru-san tells Watanuki, bowing politely.

Watanuki replies in the same vein and tries not to visibly fret over the shadows in Subaru-san's face. Doumeki, the stupid jerk, is standing behind him and doesn't say anything.

Subaru-san smiles at Doumeki and Watanuki, and he says, "You have with you those you care for, and who care for you. That's… good."

Watanuki opens his mouth to deny it, and then looks at Subaru-san as he stands next to Kamui-san, new memories weighing down his eyes. It would be sacrilege to lie now.

"Yes. I'm lucky for it."  



End file.
